Eclipse

A while back, we published an article chock full of free apps.  There was a lot of stuff that we left out though.  One of the glaring holes was in the Programming/Development section.  We completely left out Eclipse.  One reason for this is that Eclipse isn’t really an app.  It is an entire development environment.  The project is completely open source and it is one of the most powerful resources available to developers…and it’s free!  So, what is Eclipse exactly?

About Eclipse

From their website: Eclipse is an open source community, whose projects are focused on building an open development platform comprised of extensible frameworks, tools and runtimes for building, deploying and managing software across the lifecycle. The Eclipse Foundation is a not-for-profit, member supported corporation that hosts the Eclipse projects and helps cultivate both an open source community and an ecosystem of complementary products and services.

Where to Download

You can find the Eclipse Project at http://www.eclipse.org.

Adobe Flash Player in the Android Marketplace

Today, Adobe announced that it is cutting Mobile Flash along with 750 jobs.

“Over the past two years, we’ve delivered Flash Player for mobile browsers and brought the full expressiveness of the web to many mobile devices, however, HTML5 is now universally supported on major mobile devices, in some cases exclusively. This makes HTML5 the best solution for creating and deploying content in the browser across mobile platforms.  We are excited about this, and will continue our work with key players in the HTML community, including Google, Apple, Microsoft and RIM, to drive HTML5 innovation they can use to advance their mobile browsers.”

- Danny Winokur, Adobe’s vice president of interactive development

I hate to say this, but Apple sure got this one right!  I never would have thought that HTML5 would kill Mobile Flash so quickly.  I’m happy with the forward progress of HTML5, but I will be sad to see Mobile Flash Player go.

The Amiga 7" Tablet

With yesterday’s post by Elizabeth Millar, I am feeling quite nostalgic!  Does anyone remember Amiga?  Remember?  They were the makers of the greatest Operating System ever.  Anyways, I had assumed that they weren’t around anymore.  Boy, was I wrong!  I came across some great news for Android lovers.  Amiga has introduced a new 7″ Android tablet for under $100!  So, what does $98 buy you these days?  Well, it’s pretty damn impressive for the price!

The new Amiga Tablet comes with a 750 MHz processor, multi-touch display, 4GB of storage, Wi-Fi, and more!  It comes with Android 2.2 (froyo) and it is capable of handling most tasks.  Amiga is also going to be offering accessories for the device including keyboards, cases, etc.

My favorite thing about Android is the ability to make affordable portable devices.  My first Android device was a 7″ Huaweii Ideos Tablet that cost around $300.  I still use it constantly.  Since then, I have become very loyal to the Android world for my portable devices.  My phone and 3/4 of my tablets are Android powered.  Do you think that a $98 Android Tablet is a good thing for the Tablet market?  Let me know in the comments!  Here’s what gave Amiga its big break back in the day:

The Greatest Operating System Ever.

PHP while loop with MySQL

I have been coming across a lot of “Essential Tools For Web Developers” lists lately and I noticed that they are all really extensive.  Some of them have as many as 100 tools listed!  This begs the question, “Do you understand what ‘essential’ means?”.  So here is my EXTENSIVE list of essential tools for web developers.  This is literally every essential tool you will need to develop web applications.

Web Server Software and Extensions

First and foremost, you’re going to need a web server.  If you have a web host, disregard this tool because this is essentially the service that they provide.  If you plan to run your own web server, check out WAMP for Windows and LAMP for Linux.

Text Editor

Notepad will work.  However, I would recommend getting a better one than that since it doesn’t really have any features!  There are a ton of free options.  Some people swear by Eclipse.  I prefer Notepad++ on Windows, TextWrangler on Mac, and VIM on Linux.

FTP Client

After you have created a new script or app using your awesome text editor, you will have to upload it to the web server.  Again, there are several free FTP clients out there.  I prefer FileZilla personally.  It was originally written for Windows, but has since been ported to Mac and Linux.  The Mac version can be a tad buggy from time to time but it’s super fast still and I love it!

Ummmm…yeah…that’s it.  Nothing else is needed to develop web applications.  There are lots of helpful tools out there and they should certainly be used, but they are NOT essential!

I see quite a future with my new love.

For the past six months, I’ve been craving a smartphone like my dog craves Greenies. Since I’ve been counting down my “New Every Two” with Verizon like a kid counts down to Christmas,* it gave me plenty of time to think out what to do. It basically came down to Android vs. iPhone. On Monday the decision was made, the contract was signed, and I got a Motorola Droid X!

I have Verizon, and I’ve been hearing for years that the iPhone is coming soon – just wait, it will be here in no time. Well, it’s finally on its way, and what did I do? I went Android. Why you ask?

First off, I waited so long that I wanted it NOW, didn’t care to wait for the iPhone in February. Recommendations were also up there in my decision-making; my husband has Motorola Droid and loves it, and my father has Motorola Droid 2 and loves it more than he loves me.** Also, the ratings of the Droid X were just fantastic.

Now, what do I think of this phone I just purchased? I absolutely love it. It was pretty easy to get going on, especially considering I’ve never used one before. I was even able to easily set up my email from my personal domain – high-five ME! It’s also got a nice big screen, decent battery life, and it’s light. It’s not as bulky as I thought it would be. Being Android, it’s basically a Linux computer that you can root and re-program the OS .***

The only thing kind of lame about it was that it comes with apps already loaded, and some of them – Blockbuster and Madden – can’t be uninstalled. With before-mentioned reprogramming, I’m assuming that these apps actually can be uninstalled. If anyone knows anything about it, please let me know!

Oh, you would like to know what apps I downloaded for it on my first day? Considering I’m a newbie at the smartphone, I felt very fancy to “get apps” as the kids say. Here they are in order of download:

• Twitter
• Facebook
• Angry Birds
• Ninja Kaka
• Fart Machine
• Google Translate****
• Advanced Task Killer

There ya go – that’s my love story. I hope you didn’t have to break out the tissue.

————————————————————————————————————————-
* Two similes in one sentence, what do you think about that? I got mad 8th grade English skills.

** Well, it doesn’t cry or talk back – can’t really argue that.

*** Sounds hot, yeah? I have no idea how to do that, but darnit, it’s something I’d like to learn.

**** I made the lady say the F-word like 100 times, husband’s reaction, “Congratulations, you’re a 12-year old.”

Where nobody can hear you scream...

A team of British researchers have announced plans to launch a new satellite into orbit.  This is no ordinary satellite though!  The plan is to include an Android Smartphone in a specialized protective case which might eventually be used to control various functions and tasks on the satellite itself!

The early stages of the mission will be reserved for testing how the Android phone holds up in the hostile environment.  If everything goes smoothly enough, they will attempt to use the phone to operate different parts of the satellite.  The team of researchers plan to use the CPU, RAM, internal storage, and camera of the Android phone in their experiments.

So, why did they choose Android?  Why not shoot an iPhone into space?  Well, the primary reason is the open-source software included on the Android.  The licensing of the phone’s software will allow the researchers to pretty much do whatever they want to it.  They can add whatever custom software they need, they can edit existing software, etc.  This will give them the freedom needed to pull something like this off.  Besides, if you shoot an iPhone into space, Apple will probably want a cut of the action and demand that you shoot an iPhone commercial while in orbit.

I should point out that I’m leaning towards a Gentoo or Ubuntu pumpkin this year.  You will certainly see the final result right here when it’s finished!

First, let’s take a look at a graphical representation of the Linux File System:

The first thing we need to talk about is the root directory (/).  It is the directory where all of the other directories in the file system are stored.  The root user is the only one who can write to this directory.  It is not to be confused with /root which is the root user’s home directory!

Within the root directory, you will find the following sub-directories.  I have included some descriptions of each:

1.  /bin

The /bin directory is for User Binaries.  It is where many of the most common Linux commands are stored.  Specifically, this is where the single user mode binaries are stored.

2.  /sbin

This directory is almost exactly like the /bin directory, with one exception.  The binaries here are primarily used by Administrators for system maintenance.

3.  /etc

The configuration files for your programs and operating system are stored in /etc.

4.  /dev

This is where all of the device files are located.  For example, this is the directory that you would call to in order to mount a drive with a command like: mount /dev/sda2 /mnt/backup

5.  /proc

The /proc directory is one of the most interesting in the whole Linux File System.  It is actually its own virtual file system with a massive amount of text information about system processes.

6.  /var

This is where all of the variable files are stored.  Most commonly, this is where log files and web server files are stored.

7.  /tmp

These are simply temporary files.

8.  /usr

Programs installed by single users get stored here.

9.  /home

This is where all of the user home directories are except for the root user’s home directory which is /root.

10.  /boot

The files that make up the boot loader go in /boot.  Everything from boot loader menus, to the actual kernel files are stored here.

11.  /lib

All of the binary files that are located in /bin and /sbin are supported by the library files located in /lib.

12.  /opt

/opt is short for “optional”.  It is the directory where individual vendors can install optional add-on software for the operating system.

13.  /mnt

The /mnt directory is the mount point that system administrators can use to mount file systems temporarily.

14.  /media

The /media directory serves the same purpose as the /mnt directory except it is specifically for removable devices and can be used by non administrators.

15.  /srv

The /srv directory contains server specific service files.

Free is an amazing word! I decided to compile a list of 100+ of the very best free apps for Windows, Mac, and Linux. Not all of the free apps listed work on all platforms…so make sure to look into it on your own. This list is broken down into 11 pages. Each page accounts for a software category. Feel free to leave additional free apps that you like in the comments!

Categories:

• Web Browsers
• Anti-Virus/Security
• Graphics/Photos
• Media Players/Converters/Streamers
• Bit Torrent Clients
• Programming/Development
• FTP/SCP/SSH
• System Tools
• Chat/Messengers/Social
• Archive Management
• Productivity

Well, the problem didn’t go away. I started searching for other users having the same problem and came across many who complained about the screen flickering randomly or occasionally. Well, that wasn’t the problem I was having. My flicker/shake was constant. It was also much more noticeable on the right side of the screen than the left side.

I will note that the problem doesn’t occur in Win7, so it’s not a hardware problem.

I have posted my question on UbuntuForums.org and now I must wait for a response. In the meantime, I will continue trying to solve the problem myself.